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The Greenstone Stronghold
The 8th Siege of the Greenstone Stronghold Year 1256 AR Setting: For nearly a hundred years the Tides of Irusis battered against the beleaguered Western Idolei and their allies, encircling whole cities and strongholds which were only lightly connected through deep underground passages and root systems known only to the Druidic Batkin. Such was the fate of the greatest of the druidic strongholds of the Idolei people. A tall mass of rock rising from the floor of the Silvyan, the Greenstone stronghold commanded a vast expanse of territory, and was holy to the Western Idolei who performed great druidic rites and communed with the land with great affinity. Its fall sounded a call across the Silvyan to unite against the spawn of Irusis, causing for the first time in nearly three thousand years an alliance between the Western Idolei and the Eastern Idolei along with elements of the human Empire of Ordain. The Siege: In the year 1254 AR Irusis set about the finalization of his plans to capture the Greenstone Stronghold. He called for a Blood and Baying, a great holy war against the Idolei who continued to resist his children's rise beneath the boughs of The Silvyan. Setting the clans of Wererats to find and cut off the deep underground tunnels to the stronghold/temple and Werewolfs and Wereboars to tighten the noose on the surface the final days of the stronghold were coming to an end. When this had been completed in early 1255 AR, his children set about preparing for the actual siege. No Were had ever seen the inside of the fortress, not even mild vermin or birds could breach the powerful wards and protections the Idolei had set in place long ago to keep out unwanted eyes. Yet, Irusis knew that if the gateway could be breached, nothing inside would halt the flood of fur and fang at his command. Trees were felled outside of the stronghold to make siege equipment, trenches were dug and weapons and provisions brought forth to feed the Tide that Irusis unleashed in the Spring of 1256 AR. Calling nearly all available Werekins, Irusis himself left the great Sanctum in the City of Baying, surrounded by a legion of albino Weres. Breaching the gates took seven months, and the lives of some four thousand Weres, with Wereboars and Werebears taking the brunt of the losses. The Idolei were prepared, using the very earth and vegetation to kill or hamper the advance of siege engines. Idolei archers, some of the best in the world pincushioned Weres to the ground, soaking the land in blood. With Wererats attacking through the use of side tunnels into the communication and trade passages to other strongholds, amphibian-like Weres moving in deep underwater channels that supplied the stronghold and with Werewolf shock troops storming the great gateway Irusis's children flooded into the holy shrine of the Idolei. The Fall: For their credit, the Idolei were outnumbered some two hundred to one and even with their water source lost, their communications and relief halted by the Wererats, and the Werewolves taking the Gateway held on for another four months, bleeding the Werekin for every inch of the great fortress temple. Devious traps, and the very vegetation that had grown into the massive rise of rock aided in their defense. Vicious magic ripped hallways apart as the Druids sought to by relief some time to arrive. Idolei warriors, masters of their craft could hold a single hallway with less than a handful, all resigned to their fate and willing to die to defend their holy shrine. By the end of the siege and Irusis had walked into the Shrine of Aggal over the bodies of a thousand dead Idolei, entire families cut down, the Weres had lost some ten thousand dead, and another three thousand wounded. Horrific losses didn't concern the demigod, content in the capture of such a formidable fortress that could fuel further conquests. For the Idolei, some of their most powerful relics were lost in the stronghold along with some of their most powerful druids, shamans and master monks. Nine Grand Masters perished in the temple and with them a great deal of knowledge and cultural identity. Fearing that their turn was next the xenophobic Eastern Idolei offered a hand of alliance to their cousins for the first time in thousands of years since their splitting. While still not a single Idolei nation, the two would coordinate and fuse their might together to combat the ever encroaching children of Irusis. Seeing the fall of the Greenstone Stronghold, the Emperor of Ordain also offered assistance to the Idolei people, opening a floodgate of trade and gifts of armaments and elements of the Black Dawn, and mercenaries. A hornet's nest had been struck.